Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.

Chapter 15: Staging An Intervention

Travel was slow, the day after everything had happened. Muscles ached from the adrenalin receding, and Danny's arm was sporting a bandage that needed to be replaced three times a day. The cut hadn't needed stitches, but it would take some time to heal and would probably scar according to Nurse Joy.

It was probably going to be a bigger scar than any of the one his uncle had from being a Professor for years now.

Danny's wrists also still itched from the rope that had been used, and when he'd asked the others about it, they said it was the same for them. Max said it was kinda normal for rope to do that, which had then led to some talk about Team Rocket and Max sharing stupid stories, but it had been silent since then.

They'd been lucky. A cut, a lot of confusion – Evan had been woozy until after a night's rest – and sore muscles? It could've been so much worse, and this time, there was no xerneas to heal all wounds and to help them. Danny didn't know how Gary had ended up overhead on his grandfather's dragonite – though he had guesses he couldn't really voice because of Evan – but without that… He shuddered to think where they could've been.

Maybe Max had been right with his whole 'do not think about it' thing back in Pallet Town.

"So, why did they come after you?" Evan suddenly asked, breaking the long silence, startling Danny and causing masquerain to veer downwards for a moment. The pair of houndour padding alongside probably also looked at him strangely. "I know you were wanted and stuff, but… They didn't look like the fuckin' coppers or anything."

"That's 'cause they weren't," Max explained, already sounding agitated even to Danny's ears. "They looked and acted like scum from some or another Team."

"But Hoenn doesn't have any of those. Team Aqua and Magma are gone. Dead. In prison. You put them there!"

"Then they're new, I don't know!" Max replied heatedly. "Team Rocket's still around here, police have been trying for years to get them. Maybe it's them, fuck if I know!"

Part of Danny wondered what had happened to the Team Rocket agent that Max had met with in Durocor, nearly a year ago, but then Evan dug his heels in, almost literally, Danny saw. "If it is, you should stop fuckin' looking for them! Maybe not get others wounded and confused and shit!"

Anger rose up in Danny's abdomen, and he took a step forward, but he was able to stop himself from saying anything in anger. Instead, he used his good arm to grab Max by the elbow, yanking him back from doing anything stupid. "Evan," the older teenager said, and he tried as best he could to not glare. "Go take a walk away, okay? To cool down. We'll be here."

"Fine, dipshits," the youngest one said, before turning around and stomping off, his houndour trailing after him.

"Masquerain, go after him, keep him safe," Danny ordered, and his Bug-type obeyed without question, zooming away, but at a distance from Evan. "Sit down, Max," he said, releasing his hold on Max's elbow and only getting a glare and a hand rubbing the elbow in return. "Sit. Down."

"You heard what he said, right?" Max asked, folding his arms angrily and still not sitting down. "Like it was my fau – hey!"

"Good girl," Danny complimented his houndour, who had tugged at Max's pack to make him fall over backwards. He got a happy doggy grin in return. "Yes, I heard what he said. No, didn't like it either. But he's not completely okay mentally, and you're not helping."

Another glare, but a bit of hesitation, too. "So that makes it fine? Stupid, ignorant..."

Danny kicked Max's foot, just hard enough to make him stop talking. "Ignorant, yes," he bit out. "Evan's not used to what we are. Use your brain for a second and think about what happened yesterday for someone who's never been attacked like that."

Thankfully, Max did indeed engage his brain as far as Danny could see. "Serena never was like this."

Still petulant, but that was easy to deal with. "Serena was still pretty meek in the Glittering Caves," Danny countered. "And the next time she was involved, she'd gotten used to the madness." He refrained from mentioning that a lot of her questions after the fact had centred around Max's behaviour. "Evan is a lot more stubborn than she was. Reminds me of someone else, y'know."

The comment hit home, but Max didn't reply, moving straight into sulking. Honestly, it was like a checklist, not that Danny was ever going to say that out loud without being at least half a region away from his best friend.

Then, finally, when Danny thought the matter had been closed, and he was about to go take out his binoculars to see where Evan had ended up; the land around them being fairly flat, Max spoke up again. "He was wrong too."

"Not saying he wasn't," Danny agreed after only a moment of thinking. "But he's twelve, we're fourteen going on forty with the things we've seen." He paused. "Look, we'll talk to Serena, see if she knows anything or can help Evan with it or something. And then the two of you need to talk. Nah-ah," he added, wagging his finger when Max wanted to reply. "Talk it out. You need him more than you think."

And with that, he left a hopefully thinking Max to his own devices, putting about twenty feet between them and starting to set up for lunch. Might as well make something of it, and there was no way they'd reach Carnation before someone complained they were hungry with this happening.

~~§~~§~~

Serena had only been happier to see Danny once in her entire life. This was a close second, though: getting a quick call saying that they'd been ambushed but were all mostly fine was emphatically not okay, and she intended to give Danny a piece of her mind about that. Later. "Hey Serena," the blond teenager said, sounding pretty tired for five in the afternoon. "Before you chew me out about yesterday… Can I ask you a favour?"

Why was Danny so damn perspective. Boys his age were not supposed to be. "Sure," she agreed. "What is it?"

"I need you to talk to Evan about how you dealt with, well… The stuff we got up to," Danny explained, shrugging. "He and Max got pretty angry at each other earlier today."

"You'd better tell me what happened so I can help better," Serena cautioned, and she got the eye roll she expected. "I'll try. Is that why Max isn't here? You put him in time-out?"

Danny let out a short laugh. "As if. Told him that he should make himself useful and out of Evan's hair for a bit. He's ready to make up – I know, it's a miracle," he added, probably reacting to some disbelief on her face. "Think I guilt-tripped him pretty well."

Sometimes, Serena thought Danny knew Max better than Max knew himself. This was definitely one of those times. "He needs that," she stated. "Anyway, mostly fine? I know you two, so… Spill."

An arm went up from out of view, and the bandage was pretty much what Serena had expected. It looked in need of changing too. "So it all started when Evan and I fell asleep..."

How, in the name of xerneas, were they so incredibly lucky. Gary Oak just happened to fly overhead on his grandfather's dragonite? Danny also clearly knew there was more, but given that they were on a public phone and all… Not much they could say about it, if they even knew more. "Remind me to never make him angry."

"He wasn't even angry. Or didn't look it," Danny amended. "But the way he made Paul talk was just amazing."

Paul, Paul, Paul… That name was… Wait a minute… "Paul? The brother of one of your other friends? Alice?" Serena wasn't completely sure, but the nod confirmed it. "Max must've flipped."

"Think Max was kinda sad about Paul talking at some level. He was all for getting gardevoir involved."

Serena winced. If Max followed the Team Flare trials as closely as she did – reading most of the main articles about it – he knew what that could do. Malva certainly had complained about it.

And if she were completely honest… She could understand it too. Traitors were the worst kind of people, and Paul had been hated by them ever since he'd tried to pull a fast one over his twin sister. "You dropped them off at the police?" she asked, and Danny confirmed that wordlessly. "At least they're out of your hair now. How did you forget making sure there wasn't anyone nearby anyway?"

"Y'know… Not sure myself," Danny admitted. "It's not gonna happen again, that's for sure."

Serena idly wondered how many Pokémon would be out and about. Probably about four. "So Evan got his head scrambled by your litwick? And it lasted that until he went to bed?"

"Stuff like Confuse Ray and Will-O-Wisp is litwick's speciality," Danny told her. "And we've been working on that too. You know my style. Mind," he added, "I don't think that the Sleep Powder into being held upside down helped either. And litwick probably put a lot into it too."

"I'm not sure I can help too much," she admitted, and Danny frowned. "Don't forget, I chose to come with you in Durocor, and the injury I got there was physical and something I could easily deal with because of my knee. But I did promise I'd try, so…"

One minute later, Danny had left after Evan had shooed him away. "So you're Serena," the boy said, his left hand scratching behind his ear. He had light brown hair, light eyes that were either grey or light blue – she couldn't tell – and a pretty bored look on his tanned face. "Danny said you had something to ask me?"

"Kinda." She took a breath in. "Are you okay after what happened yesterday?"

She was prepared for the scowl. She'd heard enough about Evan to know that he was like that. "Just had my fuckin' brain scrambled for hours and that's not even getting into the whole ambush and nearly kidnapped thing just because I'm with my cousin and his friend."

"What was that like? Your brain being scrambled, as you call it?"

Evan blinked in surprise, several times. "Didn't they teach you that? You were with them for a year, right?"

Serena shook her head, and she saw a curl or two fly into her vision. She needed a haircut. "It's a recent thing for them, and even then… I don't have any Pokémon like that. Braixen is closest, but she's not great at Confusion." She shrugged. "I've got pretty normal Pokémon type-wise. Got braixen, got ducklett, got cherrim, got mareep, got meowth. Altaria's a bit weirder, maybe, but she used to be a swablu." She remembered something. "And a zorua, but illusions don't really get into your head."

Eyes lit up as she mentioned that, and Serena suppressed a smile. Boys were so easy to manipulate sometimes. "A zorua, really? Can I see it? They're really rare!"

"Only if you answer my question."

Evan's face fell. "Figures," he said, thinking. Serena waited patiently for the twelve year old to get his thoughts straight. "I'd have moments where I just couldn't think. Well, I could think, but then they just vanished and reappeared and vanished..." Even just talking about it seemed to annoy the boy. "And then I remembered everything two minutes later. That's the fucking worst part of it."

"What do you mean?"

"I remembered how I forgot," Evan clarified. "That really screws you over."

Yeah, Serena could see that. "Must have been confusing to deal with. It's gone now?"

"Think so, but..." Evan bit his lip, suddenly nervous. "Isn't mind stuff like this supposed to last for a long time?"

"I don't know," Serena admitted, biting her tongue to not point out that his cousin would know stuff like that. "But if you want, I can give you some tips I used to work with my knee."

"Your knee?"

Oh, Danny and Max hadn't told him that. "I tore up my knee two years ago and it was a huge problem for me. Wouldn't have even been a real Trainer if it hadn't been for Danny and Max."

"They taught you this?"

Serena couldn't help but laugh. "No, silly," she said afterwards. "This is from the doctors when I was recovering. I know Max knows more about Pokémon than anyone our age, but he's just a teenager too."

"Oh, okay."

"Anyway, two things," Serena said, holding up a finger. "One: when it starts to hurt badly, you stop what you're doing. A bit of pain is fine, a lot isn't. And two," she added, raising her middle finger, "you practice with your injury to see how far you can go."

"How's that supposed to help? It's my head, not my knee."

Silly boys who couldn't see what was right in front of them. "Didn't you say something about Danny and Max teaching me something?" she reminded him, smiling at him, and grinning when she saw the realisation dawn. "You can train to have a bit of resistance. It's not without risk, I think, but Danny and Max know more about that."

"But I don't have any Pokémon who know Confuse Ray."

"What Pokémon do you have? I know you like Dark-types, Max told me that, but..."

"Poochyena, tentacool, butterfree, stunky, murkrow, houndour," Evan listed. "Don't think any of them can learn it."

"But butterfree learn Confusion, don't they?" Serena said, and the way Evan's face fell almost comically reminded her so much of his cousin. "Talk to Danny if you're still angry with Max. He'll know what to do."

"Should I be angry with him?"

Boys really did know nothing, but he sounded and looked so uncertain when he'd said that that Serena couldn't help but feel for him. Still, she wasn't going to lie about this. "I don't know, but Max stays angry for long time. He went a week being angry with us last year. But," she said a bit louder, figuring that Evan was going to say something. "I'm going to tell you something Danny told me earlier."

"What."

"Max doesn't want to be angry with you any more. It's a miracle," she added, shrugging expressively. "But it's true. So go talk to him, okay?"

"But what about zorua?"

Oh, right, she had promised that. "Making up with Max is more important. But if you want… Can you come to Pallet after you've got the badge in Carnation? It'll be worth the wait."

"Deal!"

~~§~~§~~

Finding out where May was wasn't exactly hard. Alakazam had more than enough energy to make Gary go from Pokémon Center to Pokémon Center in an instant, and once he'd found the one she'd been at most recently, fearow picked up the slack.

And somehow, despite professing to hate his sister, Max's guess had been right. May had been at the Ice Path, and was now moving south across the mountain range close by.

He found her setting up camp on one of the more accessible mountains; about sixteen hundred feet above sea level, and he directed fearow to land nearby. "May Maple."

"Oh, hello Gary," the teenager greeted him, sweetly. "Didn't know you were around here. Were you looking for Pokémon?"

"I wasn't. I was looking for you," he replied, casting his eye around for any of her Pokémon. There were none. "Something interesting happened yesterday, and I think I want answers."

May stopped fiddling with the cloth she was trying to tie to a loose peg and faced him fully, adjusting her ponytail as she did so. "You're not making a lot of sense."

"Yesterday, your brother nearly got himself captured by some thugs," Gary said casually, ignoring May's gasp. "I was there to clean up, and you know what he told me?" He held the pause for just a moment. "He told me that one of the goons had said something about Max preferring to face yveltal twenty times over." He released alakazam and umbreon, and fearow took to the skies. "And he also told me that there's only one person alive he's said that to. You."

Her blaziken and ivysaur came out in response to the ramping tension, but May signalled for them to do nothing. Lesser trainers would've been fooled by the show, but some part of May did feel threatened by him; otherwise the Pokémon wouldn't have come out.

Good.

"I never told anyone about that. Not even Mom and Dad."

"Then explain to me how two things that you alone were told made it out. Oh, please," Gary said when May tried to feign confusion. "Max tells you about what happened there, and then they nearly get arrested days later? Cut the crap, May; you're the only possible leak. Tell the truth."

The mountainside suddenly got a lot fuller as the rest of May's Pokémon responded to the threat, but Gary wasn't worried. Blastoise joined them, and a silent reminder that he had a Mega Ring persuaded May's Pokémon to not attack. "It is the truth. Maybe someone from Kalos blabbed," she shot back.

"Heh. As if," Gary replied, confusing May again. "Your brother likes secrets. There's only one he told the full story to there, and she was right in the same spot when saving thousands of lives. You don't do that and then betray them two months later."

"And I was there when we were eaten by the Tree of Beginning's gloop!" May retorted angrily. "He's my brother, Gary. I don't expect you to understand, but siblings have a bond."

"A bond you so casually threw away when you told the Hoenn government things that needed to remain secret," Gary replied calmly, further annoying her. "Return your Pokémon, May. I don't want to waste my time fighting you. The outcome is already known anyway."

She did yield, and Gary returned most of his Pokémon as an act of good faith. Fearow stayed out, but perched far enough away that there was no immediate threat to May. "I miss my brother, Gary. You think I wanted this? Not hearing anything about him for months? Even Ash wouldn't tell me anything, and I know they met up at the Indigo League!"

"At Max's request," Gary dropped casually, and May froze. "Something else he told me yesterday… There were three trying to capture him. Until he found out who the third person really was… He thought it was you."

"But, but..."

"But what," Gary interrupted the pathetic stammering. "He knew you were nearby. We've already established he likes the dirt under his shoe more than you. Between you and me, May, I'd stay far away from your brother. Or don't, but expect the Team Rocket treatment."

The exhortation that Max wouldn't do that didn't come. Instead, tears filled May's eyes. "He… He would do that? To me?" she asked in a small voice. "Am I… He hates me that much? But I'm his sister..."

"You keep saying that like it matters. You can consider yourself his, but he does not consider himself yours." Gary gestured, and fearow flew down. "Go back to Hoenn and stay there." He mounted fearow. "Oh, and May? Unlike you, I've got a pretty good bond with my sibling. So good, in fact, that I'll be stopping at her place for dinner tonight. Smell ya later."

~~§~~§~~

Max thought he'd recognise a set-up when he saw one, but really, Danny shoving him into the room after coming back and then locking the door? Audibly, and uselessly, because Max and Evan both had keys as well? Jirachi, his best friend's sense for theatrics was getting worse by the day, if not the hour.

Evan was in the room as well, unsurprisingly, looking pretty confused at what was going on. "Why'd Danny lock the door?"

"Because he's like that," Max answered as he sat down at the other end of the bed Evan was sitting on. "Look… I shouldn't have been like that, but… I forgot, okay?"

"Forgot? Forgot what?" Evan asked, turning towards him.

"That you weren't used to shit like what happened yesterday. I should've helped you more with what happened."

That confused Evan even more. "But… You only had the Kalos things, right? It was only a few times? And that Aqua shit."

Max made a snap decision. "Not really. I mean, yeah, sure, that's it for Danny," he explained. "But I saw a lot more when travelling with Ash."

"Huh?"

"Ash had a bunch of Team Rocket goons after his pikachu," Max started to explain. "So when I joined, it kinda became normal to have some trap or attack or any kind of shit happen."

Evan still seemed a bit puzzled. "So.. How often did they try? Like once a month?"

Max shook his head. "Try three times a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. Yes," he added when his cousin leant back in disbelief. "I promise I'm telling the truth. We saw way too much of them. And other Pokémon were their targets too, if they could get away with it."

"Like ralts?" Evan guessed, sounding uncertain. Max confirmed it wordlessly. "No way! You nearly lost ralts to Team Rocket? No wonder you hate people like them."

"No, that's not the reason," Max corrected softly. "They were annoying, but they never really got their hands on anything powerful. It was Team Magma," he answered before Evan could ask. "Promise me you won't talk about this to anyone unless I tell you it's okay."

His cousin moved, but it was only to settle in against the wall and the bedpost. "I promise."

It was less enthusiastic than Max hoped, but it was a promise. "Team Magma was after the Millennium Comet jirachi, and, well… Jirachi was my friend, and… What?"

"You're fuckin' lying," Evan said, disbelief dripping from his words. "You? Meet jirachi? The jirachi that only wakes up once every thousand years?" He folded his arms. "I want proof."

Max suppressed the part of him that felt annoyed by the demand. ""Brock's the one who has the pictures, but gardevoir can show you my memory." Evan's eyes threatened to pop out of their sockets. "Er, what?"

"They can do that?! Read minds and that shit?!"

"They're Psychic-types. The mind is their speciality," Max replied as he grabbed gardevoir's Friend Ball and released the Embrace Pokémon. "It's definitely easier to do things willingly than it is to read it forcibly."

A brief sensation at the base of his skull was followed by a moment of split vision and focus, but the headache faded near-instantly. "If you so desire, Evan, I can show you a memory of Max's encounter with the Wishmaker."

"Will it do anything weird to my head?"

"Er..." Max started, trying to remember the times he'd done this. "I felt a lot of foreign emotions when a gardevoir shared her memory with me, and the time I did it back, it was like… Like my own feelings had been supercharged." He fixed his eyes on Evan's face. "That was kirlia's death."

Evan winced involuntarily. "You're not gonna show me something that bad, right?"

A shrug. "I was annoyed at the time, but… It was the good annoyed. Like when someone's teasing you, but it's all in good fun." Max's left arm went towards the gardevoir's right. "You in?"

It took a few seconds of Evan visibly doubting and looking between the two of them, but eventually, he accepted. "Okay then."

Max concentrated, and a moment later, he was back chasing jirachi as the young Legendary had stolen his glasses; annoyance and happiness and the fun of the chase all mixing for a brief instant. "And?"

Evan didn't reply immediately, shaking his head – something that caused Max to glance a look at gardevoir – but then he grinned at Max. "Damn, you're really blind without those glasses of yours."

"It's not that bad," Max defended. "But… You believe me now?"

"Yah. So where'd Team Magma come in?" his cousin asked, immediately moving on like he hadn't just seen a Legendary, even in memory.

"Short summary?" Max asked, getting a nod in return. "Blah blah, power of jirachi blah blah summoning groudon blah." A snort told Max his idea had worked. "It was stupider than it just sounded."

"Is such a thing possible?" Gardevoir wondered, and that set both teenagers off with laughter. "And it seems your habit of working well with Psychic-types such as myself predates even our first meeting. Curious."

Max didn't think gardevoir had sent the second part to Evan, and so he didn't reply, instead resolving to ask about it later. "Jirachi was the first Legendary I met, too. It was something really special."

"Wish I could see one..." Evan said, side-tracked. "Not yveltal though. I know it's a Dark-type, but… I'll stay away."

"Good idea," Max replied drily. "But most of them are just… Normal Pokémon. Like the Birds and Beasts and Golems are pretty common for Legendaries. Scary powerful, but not unbeatable or stuff. In a straight fight, I mean. Ash's charizard beat an articuno," he added before Evan could reply.

"How fucking many Legendaries have you fucking met?"

Two in one sentence. Max had never heard Evan use that before. "I think… fifteen unique now. Couple more if we count doubles. Met the regis twice. Deoxys too." And celebi, but that event was going to stay between the five who knew. "You want me to list them?"

"Might as well drop more fucking pineco on me while you're at it," Evan grumbled, and Max gladly obliged. He got halfway through, but then Evan interrupted him with a strangled sound. "Mew?" he asked, voice squeaking in surprise.

"Yeah. Not the best meeting, but it wasn't really mew's fault. Very long story," he said to avert any questioning. "Took me a good hour to get everything right when I told Serena this."

"How come she knows?"

It was curiosity, not anything like envy. "After defending a museum together, keeping secrets is kinda stupid." He shook his head. "And to think someone from Team Rocket put me onto that."

"Huh? You? Team Rocket?"

Say something, and Evan jumped on it immediately. "Blackmail," Max explained, but his cousin didn't follow. "They had pictures of us there, and told me to do something about the museum that was going to be attacked or else." Another shake. "That was one of the weirdest days of my life."

"Why?"

"Being blackmailed in a posh restaurant while having lunch with someone you despise?" Max said, and Evan's face morphed into pure surprise. "It was something."

The brunet didn't seem to know what to say to that, and they lapsed into silence; during which Max returned gardevoir and waited patiently for his cousin to work through whatever he was thinking about. He had dropped a ton of stuff; no wonder that some time was needed to process it all.

He'd almost given up on any questions when a throat was cleared. "Max? D'you think a criminal can be a… a good person?"

"No," Max said flatly. "You injure or steal Pokémon, you belong in prison."

"But what if they don't do that?"

Now it was Max's turn to be confused. "What do you mean?"

His cousin leant forward a bit. "I was thinking about back home," he nearly whispered, forcing Max to lean forward as well. "I always had to meet O… the friend who gave me poochyena somewhere else. And it was always pretty empty around. Like he was hiding from something. And he was really negative about the coppers, too. But he didn't hurt Pokémon, or use them to hurt others!"

"How do you know that?"

"He only had an amoonguss, and all it did was sit around whenever I saw it. Os said he used it more for sleep than anything else. There weren't any other pokéballs on his belt."

Max couldn't follow. "Why ya think he's a criminal then? If he doesn't use Pokémon like that."

"Told ya," Evan replied, agitated. "Hated coppers, always hiding, and..." he trailed off, hand in his light brown hair. "And just a feeling, okay?"

Team Rocket was capable of hiding their true nature, Max knew that better than most, but somehow, he didn't think it was like that. Still… "If you meet him again… Be careful, okay? Just because he didn't do anything back then doesn't mean he won't in the future."

"You won't tell anyone about him?"

Evan's plea was enough to make up Max's mind for him. "I promise I won't."

That seemed to brighten the twelve year old's mood, and the room fell silent for several minutes, only interrupted by Max's walking around as he opened up a window wide: it was stuffy in the room.

"Can you tell me about some of the stuff that Team Rocket did?"

Max definitely could.

~~§~~§~~

Last to bed and first to rise; that was unusual for Danny, but it'd happened before. He'd returned late the night before – having gone out into town to ask the local Gym Leader how things worked, only to spot a cinema and a sequel to a film he remembered liking on the way back. By the time he'd come back, both of the others had been asleep, not waking up when Danny climbed the ladder to his bed, and they didn't wake up either when he had left the room that morning.

He'd nearly finished the last bit of his breakfast when both of them shuffled in at the same time. Max looked a lot more awake than Evan did, but something in the cafeteria made the twelve year old's eyes open wide, and he hurried towards the table Danny was sitting at, stealing away the bowl of rice that Danny had kept around just in case one of them would join him. "Hungry?"

"Seems like," Max said as he walked by, casting a glance at what Danny was eating. "Didn't know you liked pickles."

"They're not bad," Danny admitted with a shrug. "Want me to get you some breakfast? I'm pretty done."

Max immediately sat down, and Danny headed over, grabbing a tray and putting stuff on there on autopilot. He knew what his best friend liked from experience, and Evan ate everything anyway. Except pickles, apparently, he saw as he returned. "How can you like this shit?"

"Better taste buds?" He put the tray down, pushing it into the middle of the round table that had been cleared out while he was away. "Guess you two are good now?"

A mischievous twinkle appeared in Max's eye. "Never did ask. We good, Evan?"

"I 'pose," Evan mumbled with his mouth full. He swallowed the rice. "You're still shorty."

"See? We're good. You really didn't need to do all that, Danny."

"Seemed like a good idea at the time," was the reply. "Asked the Gym how things work around here, by the way. It'll be two on two, Monday. No time earlier: Gym Leader's got her birthday this weekend."

"Two only? That's good," Evan said in between bites. "Dark and Fairy types don't mix. Just need to think of which Pokémon to use."

"Butterfree or stunky first, houndour second," Max replied instantly, and Evan gave him a weird look. "Stunky is probably better."

"It's his sixth badge," Danny replied for Evan. "Gym Leaders counter, or did you forget Roxanne?"

"As if," Max said, scoffing and rolling his eyes at the suggestion. "If you win the first round, the Gym Leader should send out something that resists or is immune to poison. That means either a Steel-type or something with Rock characteristics. I don't think there's a Ghost-Fairy hybrid. The smarter choice is to send out something immune so you can't get lucky anyway."

It was so simple. Almost too simple. "Wouldn't the Gym Leader know about that?"

Max speared a piece of fish. "Know? Sure. Expect? Maybe. You're not asking the right question, though. Would that klefki or mawile have anything that is good against houndour?"

"You're all way too complicated for me," Evan said from the other side of the table. "Houndour does kinda need battling experience first. You said yourself she was younger."

"We can teach young dogs new tricks," Danny said, and Max groaned at his words. "I know I want to use my houndour, too. Not so sure about the second Pokémon. What about you, Max?"

A shrug from the middle teenager. "Baltoy hasn't had a Gym Battle all region, and can't exactly use it at the Dark-type Gym. So that's one. Probably adapt to what's thrown at me. It…" he said, but then he had an idea. The spoon clattering onto the table was enough proof for that. "You got diggersby with you? And a whistle? And something that can be tugged?"

Danny had no idea what Max had planned. Even by his standards, that was some really weird prerequisites. "Can fix diggersby and a whistle, but no clue what you mean by the third thing."

"One of those rope toys?" Evan spoke up, and Max nodded, visibly glad someone understood. "I've got two, I think. One's nearly torn up, but the other's fine."

"Kay. Let's be here in an hour."

An hour and ten minutes later, xatu brought them to some open area not too far from Enion, Danny thought. He sent out diggersby, and the Kalosian Pokémon, baltoy, and xatu got to work at landscaping the rocks in front of them while three canine Dark-types also came out. All of them sat down when their Trainers told them to do that. "Don't get how this is gonna help with battling," Evan said. "It's not about doing attacks."

Danny knelt down by his own houndour, tying a blue ribbon loosely around the neck as an identifying collar. "That's later. This is all about not getting hit. From all angles." He stood up. "Baltoy and xatu aren't gonna do nothing while these three race to get it."

'It' was the older rope toy that Evan had with him. Chewed up, sure, but that didn't matter. "Yeah, they'll be throwing stuff around. Diggersby can do stuff on the field too if you think it's a good idea. A bit of shaking won't hurt."

Evan continued to not really understand, but Danny kept an eye on him while the first round of retrieving the item happened – poochyena won after Danny's houndour tripped over something psionic – and he saw the boy get it. "Damn, they're having fun, aren't they?" he said needlessly: all of the canines having big goofy grins. "Give that back, boy, we need it for more of this."

The second round went over to Evan's houndour after she tripped poochyena with a sneaky paw, and that opened up everything. The canines also started to trip and jump on each other instead of just having to contend with whatever was being thrown at them; and twice in a row, Danny's houndour was the smartest at that: one time taking the toy and bringing it all the way back, and the second time taking it away from poochyena halfway through.

Evan's houndour had fallen behind a bit, but not for lack of trying, and she found herself very close to the other Dark-Fire type at the end of round five. Danny saw her open her mouth and a weak black ball formed, shooting forward. It missed the Pokémon, but it hit Max on the shin.

Everyone instantly crowded around Max, who waved them away angrily. "I'm fine, I'm fine," he said, but Danny ignored that, instead kneeling and taking a look at where the attack had hit. It was a bit red, but not that bad. "See? Made of harder stuff than that."

"I'm sorry!" Evan said, and his houndour whined agreement. "She didn't—"

"Oh, shut up," Max said, but he wasn't angry. In fact, Danny saw him smirk. "Your houndour just learned a new attack because of this running." He turned to Evan, grinning cockily. "There's your attacking."

~~§~~§~~

The area behind Ash was basically boxes and empty floor, Danny noticed as the screen came on. "How'd you get this number?" the Palace Maven to-be asked as he pulled a chair over. "This was set up yesterday."

"Connections. Pallet Town ones," Danny said, and that was enough of an answer for Ash, it seemed. "Look, there's something I need to discuss with you and Gary. In person," he added. "About Max. When are you in Pallet again?"

"Wednesday," Ash answered after thinking it over for a moment. "Did something happen to him? Apart from three days ago?"

"Nothing important. Took a newly learned Snarl to the shin, but eh," Danny said. "It's just that I had an idea about… That thing we talked about outside at Yule dinner."

It took a moment longer for Ash to recall that conversation than Danny had expected. "Okay. How are you going to get to Pallet? Charizard can pick you up."

Danny shook his head. "Nah. Borrowing xatu is easy. Gary's covering for that. Says he wants to know some measurements for Mega aggron." Honestly, even though the Pallet Town researcher had come up with that on the fly, Danny wouldn't be surprised if they'd be real by Wednesday. "How's just after dinner sound?"

Pikachu jumping on Ash's shoulder stopped the reply for a moment. "Sure. See ya then!"

"Good luck unpacking!"

~~§~~§~~§~~§~~

A group of three was charged with attempted kidnapping today, the Kanto-Johto Area Police reported in a statement. The trio; aged 32, 31, and 15, allegedly deprived three underage Trainers of their Pokémon and were only stopped as a fourth Trainer saw what was happening and intervened. During the ensuing fight, two of the victims and all of the alleged kidnappers suffered light injuries. The identity of the adults is unknown: anyone who recognises them based on the pictures linked below is advised to contact their local police station with information.